BUTNER /North Carolina/, November 15. /TASS/. There is a need to wait for the results of Russia-US prisoner swap talks, Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov told reporters after visiting Russian national Roman Seleznev in prison in Butner, North Carolina.
"I can’t discuss issues related to prisoner swap talks because I don’t take part in them. I would like to reiterate that it’s better to make less comments on the matter and wait for specific results," the envoy pointed out.
When asked if recent arrests of Russian nationals at the request of the US authorities in third countries could complicate the negotiation process and if a prisoner exchange could take place in the near future, the envoy declined to give a direct answer. "The two presidents (Vladimir Putin of Russia and Joe Biden of the United States - TASS) earlier agreed to create special lines of communication to discuss the problem. This work should continue in a calm atmosphere and, I beg your pardon, it should not involve the media," Antonov stressed. "Making a statement today that we have done something is not our main goal. The most important thing is to bring our people, Russian nationals, back home," the ambassador added.
Seleznev case
Roman Seleznev was detained at the international airport of the Maldives’ capital of Male on July 5, 2014, and taken to a jail on the island of Guam, an unincorporated territory of the United States. Guam’s district court refused to release the Russian and ruled that he should be deported to Seattle.
In August 2016, a jury in Seattle convicted Seleznev of 38 out of 40 counts of cybercrime. He was charged with hacking into the databases of some 200 US companies. On April 21, Seleznev was sentenced to 27 years in prison and ordered to pay $170 mln.
In September 2017, prosecutors in the US state of Georgia, who had also brought charges against Seleznev, announced that the Russian citizen had pleaded guilty to colluding to carry out a cyberattack on the Worldpay company providing payment services to banks. In Nevada, Seleznev was accused of having been involved in crimes since 2009 as part of the Carder Internet group whose members committed computer crimes linked to stealing credit card numbers and personal information of bank clients.
In December 2017, the US Department of Justice announced that Seleznev had been handed a 14-year prison term based on charges brought against him in Georgia and Nevada and would serve the sentence alongside his 27-year prison term.